Type of Counseling:  do it yourself, online tips, guidance, and interactive tools

Typical Cost:  under $250

Type Program:  Internet healthcare information and diet website

Type of Foods Used:  regular grocery store food

At-Home or Direct Mail Plan Available?  Yes

WebMD Corp.

699 River Drive, Center 2

Elmwood Park, NJ 07407

201-703-3400

Website:  www.webmd.com

WebMD, a public company, is much more than an online weight loss "clinic" or program. It is more of a broad-based health information portal or directory, whose services include: newsletters, message boards, chat rooms, live events, tools to find a physician, and medical information and articles covering a wide variety of diseases and conditions. The website contains a medical library and a health and wellness section that includes alternative medicine, diet and nutrition, sexuality, pregnancy, skin and beauty, and much more.

The company claims to have "created an organization that fulfills the promise of health information on the Internet." They provide credible information, supportive communities, and in-depth reference material about health subjects. They are a source for original and timely health information as well as material from well known content providers.

Their "board-certified physicians, award-winning journalists, and trained community moderators are solely dedicated to your daily information experience on WebMD." The content staff includes individuals who hold advanced degrees in journalism, medical illustration, health communications, clinical informatics, nursing, and medicine.

WebMD's philosophy and approach uses four basic behavioral principles to help users learn about healthy eating habits: self-monitoring; self-observation; social support and feedback.

The WebMD "Weight Loss Clinic" claims to use the first and only online expert nutritional system to create an eating plan. The Weight Loss Clinic method is based on extensive scientific and nutritional experience. WebMD's plans follow the dietary recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences. Whenever possible, eating plans tend to be on the high side of lean protein, include an ample amount of smart carbohydrates and low in healthy fats.

The company avoids "fad" diets and the online program is based on a weight loss plan used successfully in Europe for 15 years. The WebMD program was developed in France by a physician. The program prescribes a minimum of 1340 calories a day for women and 1500 for men. For most users, this amounts to 500 fewer calories a day, producing an average weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week. The program encourages members to eat a variety of healthy foods and engage in regular physical activity to promote slow and steady weight loss that is permanent.

WebMD uses its know-how and analysis tools to assess your eating habits. It can then correct poor eating habits and suggest a more balanced diet, without asking you to totally give up the foods you like to eat. Members are prescribed eating plans with plenty of nutritious foods so that they feel full and satisfied at mealtimes and snacks.

The WebMD Weight Loss Clinic helps you to lose weight safely and effectively, without restricting what you can eat. There are no diet foods, meal replacement shakes or nutrition bars. Support and counseling occur via daily and weekly emails, online feedback, throughout the 9 community message boards, and in chats either one-to-one or in group situations. Nutrition basics and menu planning are included. An advisory board is also being formed.

This online program works as follows, for members:

• Log on to http://diet.webmd.com (no www) and enter your username and password provided to you by email.

• You will arrive on the questions on your lifestyle page. This is the beginning of the questionnaire, which should take about 15 to 20 minutes to fill out.  You may log out at any time during the questionnaire and complete it at a later time. The questionnaire is based on typical food intake over the course of a week.  When you complete the questionnaire, you will have the opportunity to view the eating plan, along with all aspects of the program including:

1. My Eating Plan - Print a copy of your plan, review the food and nutrient guides, create a new plan or peruse the recipe collection.  Extensive lists of food substitutions can be found by clicking on all of the food categories.

2. My Journal - Visit this section so you can see the kind of feedback provided to users on a daily and weekly basis.

3. My Evaluation Results - This section has the results of your questionnaire, calorie counts of your favorite foods and personalized weight loss goals.

4. Dieting Health - Weekly expert columns by the staff registered dietitians along with WebMD's content are featured on the home page.  An extensive list of searchable archived articles is located in the news and views area. Community boards and success stories are also featured in this area.

Members are encouraged to build physical activity into their daily routine. You are asked to journal the time spent each day on aerobic and strength training activities.

The initial set-up (nutrition analysis) takes 20-30 minutes to complete and is very thorough. Detailed questions and choices are presented for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Once this is done, the daily journal usually takes only 3-5 minutes. There is no calorie counting involved, an appealing feature to many dieters.

One can email a question to WedMD's dietitian, recipe doctor dietitian or fitness expert and get a response. However, there doesn't seem to be a psychologist on staff to address psychological issues that dieters may be experiencing. For most dieters, these issues, in BestDietForMe.com's opinion, are equally as important as nutrition and exercise.

The WebMD Weight Loss Clinic costs $4.99 per week.

The WebMD Weight Loss Clinic was honored in 2003 as a finalist in the International Health and Medical Media Awards. In the opinion of BestDietForMe.com analysts, if you are looking for a low-cost, convenient, online weight loss program backed by a huge library of broad-based healthcare-related information, WebMD’s weight loss clinic is a very good choice. The price is in line with other diet websites. The library of medical information about a variety of diseases and conditions is WebMD’s main strong point. However, weight loss is not the ONLY topic they cover, just one of many.

This website does appear to comprehensively analyze your eating habits and generate detailed and personalized menu plans. However, the one area we feel could use improvement is in addressing the psychological aspects of overeating. There were no psych-related questions in the set-up questionnaire at all, although one can find related motivational articles on the website.